Excerpt from the Diary of Starlight Glimmer

It has been many days since I have written in this journal.

The reason for this is I've only just now been able to return to Our Town and recover all of my books. Suffice to say, after the interference of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the ponies living there have not been too excited to see me. I had to wait for the majority of the ponies to leave before I could sneak back into my house (My own house!) and recover this journal and my research.

I'm not going to lie, I considered revenge against Princess Twilight and her friends many times, but I've come to realize that my work is more important than some personal scheme. The disaster in Our Town has set me back months, perhaps even years, but I'm not going to stop my work.

One thing was made clear to me was my methods were imperfect. I was too eager to see results, too excited when it began to work, and too impatient to prove my theories. I forced ponies to give up their cutie marks before they were fully ready, and I paid the price for my hubris. Never again.

The past few weeks have given me a chance to consider what I did wrong and right, and I'm going to start on the ground floor of my research. Cutie Mark Magic has been engrained in Pony Society since the dawn of time, and at first, I considered finding a way to see that dawn and prevent it. Even the work of Starswirl the Bearded could only bring me back a few years, however, forcing me to reevaulate my priorities.

If only there was some way to do the demarking on a massive scale, remove the concept of Cutie Marks altogether...but that's absurd. I will return to my research; if history doesn't have the answer, then there must be something in magic...